DOWAGIAC It came to her like, well, a bolt of lightning. Jessica Worthington doesn't know exactly why she was able to keep her wits about her, when everyone else seemed to be losing theirs, following a July 3 lightning strike at St. Joseph's Silver Beach. But the 16-year-old Dowagiac resident does know a 9-year-old girl is alive today, largely because of Jessica's ability to follow to the letter her newly acquired CPR skills. Two breaths, Lou Mumford Mum's the Word Lou Mumford is a Tribune columnist. followed by 30 chest compressions. Two breaths, 30 compressions. Jessica repeated the procedure over and over until a pulse was discovered in Lyndsay Prager. A pulse, and a breath from Lyndsay that fell on Jessica's cheek. "When I felt her breathe, I thought to myself, I think I did it," Jessica said. Jessica recalled that she almost didn't go to the beach that day. She said she had been going to beach with friends every day for about a week, and her father, Dean, tried to put a stop to it. But Jessica was emphatic she wanted to see the fireworks that night, and her dad relented. She recalled it began raining, prompting her, Kathy Lindt, 16, of Dowagiac, and Chris Hass, 17, of Eau Claire, to return from the beach to Kathy's car. The car was parked just two feet, Jessica said, from a small tree that absorbed some, but not all, of the ensuing lightning bolt. "There was this really loud boom, and me and Kathy screamed," Jessica said. "Then we started laughing, because we had screamed. That's when Chris said, 'Dude, this girl just got struck by lightning.' " Lyndsay and Lyndsay's half sister, Myriah Jacobs, 13, on vacation with their grandparents, Karen and Dale Whiteaker, of Milan, Mich., were attempting to enter their truck parked next to Kathy's auto when the lightning struck. Karen Whiteaker said she observed a blue flash and felt a powerful shock race through the right side of her body. "I do remember when the shock came up my leg. It was like a magnetic pole. I felt like my (right) foot was being pulled down. I was thrown sideways about 4 feet," she said. But it was Lyndsay who received the worst of it. Karen said her husband told her Lyndsay was lifted two to four feet into the air and was thrown flat on her face onto the sidewalk. The girl was unconscious and Dale Whiteaker was unable to detect a pulse. Karen said her husband began to perform CPR but the scene was so traumatic he couldn't carry it out. Dale shouted for help from anyone knowing CPR and Jessica, who had learned the skill only a few months before in Linda O'Keefe's healthy lifestyles class at Dowagiac Union High School, responded. "Kathy knows CPR, too, but she kind of like froze," Jessica recalled. "She said, 'I can't do it, I can't do it.' I said, 'OK, I'm going to help.' "I got out the door and rolled up the bottom of my pants -- it was pouring rain -- and I just, like, ran over to her (Lyndsay). I said, 'I know CPR,' and I started doing what I was supposed to." She said Lyndsay's dire condition was obvious. "There was smoke coming out of her nose and mouth. Her chin was bleeding. Her eyes had rolled back into her head. Her face was turning white," Jessica said. "Before I did it (CPR), I said to myself I can do this, and I just went ahead and did it." Jessica said she rendered CPR for perhaps three to five minutes until a park official and paramedics arrived. Lyndsay remained unconscious but at least she was alive. Just three days later, Lyndsay had recovered well enough at Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, that Jessica and her family were able to pay her a visit. Jessica said Lyndsay appeared overwhelmed and didn't say much. "She had short-term memory loss. She'd ask me something, and five minutes later she'd ask me the same thing again," Jessica recalled. Today, Lyndsay has returned home to her mother, Heidi Richards, and stepfather, Cliff Richards, in Haysville, Kan. Heidi said Lyndsay is still having memory problems, although that condition is improving, and she may need surgery to patch a hole in her eardrum. But other than that and a few superficial burns, she's doing remarkably well. She said Lyndsay's only recollection of July 3 is building a sand castle that morning with Myriah. As for her own injuries, Karen Whiteaker said the bolt damaged nerve endings in her right hand and foot. She's still amazed, she said, by Jessica's actions that day. "Lightning was still striking in the area. ... Would you have gone out there?" she said. "We've made an offer to her family to stay at our condo in Hawaii. I hope they use it." Perhaps they will. But Jessica, mature beyond her years, said it's not necessary. "I don't expect a reward. My reward is knowing I helped somebody," she said.